Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Today was definitely a day for experimentation. I used a completely different kind of paper - I don't know the name of it because I bought it years ago from Paper-Ya, but it looks kind of like someone put bark mulch through a grinder & turned it into paper. I also used a different kind of registration system (thanks to Andrew Gott!):

Dave epoxied a three-hole-punch made for binders onto a nice heavy piece of Plexiglas for me. I set up the cardboard right-angle to nestle the block up against to have consistent block registration. The paper registration comes from punching the paper into the hole-punch. Theoretically, anyway. Unfortunately, it didn't work so well with this super-thin paper - by the end of the 5 colour run, I had more ellipses than circles for holes.. The registration kept slipping. But I did end up with better overall results in the registration department than if I had used my more traditional registration setup.

Finally, I was more "organic" in the development of the piece. Normally, I use photographs and work very strictly from them. This time, I just did a quick sketch from a reference photo, and then went to work on the block. So most of the image was developed on the block itself, rather than in a drawing before hand. As a result, I have quite a few trial proofs, whereas usually I'll only get one or two.

I suppose also, this is a bit of a change from me in subject matter. I usually just do stuff, or objects, or animals, whatever, just because they interest me. I had an idea when I started to look at the reference photo (which other than having a coyote in it, doesn't look like this at all), and the expression on the coyote's face really struck me. So the theme of this piece is a bit of "ambiguity". The title is "Guilty" - and although it's not really clear from the end result, the coyote is trotting through a garbage dump. So why "Guilty"? That's up to you to decide!

The dimensions of the piece are approximately 3.75"x3.75", and of course, done in Speedball water soluble ink (no, I haven't got any other inks yet!!). Oh, yeah, and another experiment (although not accomplished yet) will be to somehow mount these flimsy pieces of paper onto something more substantial (e.g. the Rising Stonehenge paper that I've used before). Given that Speedball stays "active" as it were (i.e. when it dries, it is NOT waterproof), using traditional paste will be somewhat of a challenge. I'll give it a go on the crappy alignment ones first to see how that works.

So, here's the process:

First state - layer of slightly warmed very light grey as a foundation layer, but still some paper showing through (very hard to see in this photo).

It's hard to tell from the photo, but there is actually a different colour in the background, and it makes a lot of difference compositionally. In this photo the final colour on the coyote and the background final colour look the same, which results in less distinction between the coyote and the background. In real life, there is a difference, and therefore the coyote stands out better. I suspect it's from twiddling with the exposure with software that did it, as I took the photo under incandescent bulbs, no flash, at night. I'll try scanning when it's dry to see if it makes any difference.

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About Me

I am a printmaking artist based on the West Coast of Canada, with my cabinetmaker husband Dave, my artist mum Betty, our new "edition" Katja, and feline assistants, Murri & Mr. Stubbi (plus a flock of Muscovies and a couple of pigs). My artwork reflects upon the natural world and the irony of progress. I have a shop on Etsy featuring hand-crafted, original prints.

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking, baking & processing food from our garden (canning, lacto-fermentation, dehydrating, etc.), a fair amount of time with my daughter & husband, not nearly enough time in the studio, and precious little time exercising!

While we aren't really farmers, we aspire towards homesteading status, raising a fair portion of our own food (animals included), and doing some gleaning from the local environment. Knowing where our food comes from and how our food is handled/treated is a big deal to us, plus we just really enjoy learning how to do stuff. Our animals & garden have taught us so much, and enter our young daughter to teach us even more.

I've not done much art since the birth of our daughter, but eventually I'll be back at it. I especially love teaching printmaking, because it's so versatile and interesting, and really easy to do a lot of it at home on your kitchen table.

I try to fill my life with learning and discovery, and I am lucky enough to have a life partner and little girl who not only help make that possible, they are just as interested, too!!